Arrowfield Passes 1,000 Black Type Graduate Points

It is often suggested that time in the market trumps timing the market, however both are equally true for Arrowfield Stud. With decades of success by their sales graduates at the pointy end of the Australian feature race landscape, Arrowfield can legitimately claim extensive time in the market, yet in the shadows of the final weeks of the 2023-24, the Messara family-owned thoroughbred enterprise has also timed a significant achievement to perfection, and it happened with yet another Group performer by prodigiously successful young stallion The Autumn Sun. By finishing third in the Gr3 Winx Guineas, Arrowfield’s Inglis Easter graduate gelding Know Thyself tipped the vaunted vendor into hitherto unchartered territory, passing through the 1,000 point barrier to sit on 1,002 Black Type Premiership sales graduate points earned since the start of the 2020-21 racing season. Remarkably, Arrowfield has bred or co-bred 35 of its 38 stakes performers this season (that 38 number includes 5 horses that weren’t offered for sale at auction or raced outside Australia: Adios, Genzano, Recommendation, Remarque & Whizz Kid); 23 are by 4 current Arrowfield stallions (Snitzel, The Autumn Sun, Dundeel and Maurice), with another 13 by past Arrowfield sires (inc. Althoff, conceived during Written Tycoon’s single season at the Scone stud farm). Of the 38, only Muramasa (by Deep Impact) and Estriella (by I Am Invincible) are by outside sires. During the four seasons since the inaugural Australian Black Type Vendor Premiership, Arrowfield graduates either sold or passed-in through a sales ring have won or placed in 26 Group 1 events, a figure matched by Segenhoe Stud following what has been another exceptional season for the Peter O’Brien-managed Hunter Valley property.

22 of Arrowfield's on the board graduate performances were by Snitzel (pic: Arrowfield Stud)